The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-18
WOMEN PHYSICIANS.
Some Points of Interest About DR..
Mary Putnam Jacob.

Survivors of this HeXtraordinary Race"
And DIR. Mary Putnam jacob lifted hel
fan for the afternoon was sultry, anC
swung to and fro in business like rocker IL
her busineSs-like consulting room. Il have
lust returned from a conference with doctor
q brother of my patient, believe, from out
of town, who assured me that he had never
met a woman physician before. Positively
he reminded me of twenty-five years ago
when the few women who were timidty be-
ginning to practice were stared at as If
they ought not to he allowed out of theI
cages in the menagcrie. They were verl-
table curiositics then, and it seems that in all
ewes we are not the ordinary, commonplace
mortals we seem to ourselves yet
DR.. jacob is not commonplace mortal
herself by any means. Though not the first
woman to practice medicine, in America,
she was the first of her sex who obtained ad-
mission to the Paris l. Ecole de Medicine and
completed its course, holding first rank i'll a
class which reckoned many students, since
eminent Gen. Putnam, of revolutionary
fame, was her ancestor, and the same traits
of fiImneSs and quick resolution OF charac-
ter which marked him crop out again In
her, tempered, especially since the birth of
her children. by wOmanly sympathy that
gives the competing touch to character that
is. perhaps, a type of the intellectual wom
an at her best Dr. Jacobs face expresses
the woman perfectly. Acute, logical,
bravely truthful, it fits well upon the shout
ders of the most scientifically exact of the
women physicians of America.
Since her marriage TO DR.. jacob, himself
a distinguished physician, whose name she
has added to her own, DR. Mary Put, as she
is sometimes dubbed, half atfeCtionatey,
half in allusion to the old Connecticut hero,
has led busy life in New York, where, in
spite of the curiosly mtruthful adage
about women not trusting women, she en-
Joys \ practice not exceeded by any physi-
clan of either sex and running up to fabu-
lous number of thousands yearly, besides
writing extensively for medical and Scienti-
fic publications and holding the position of
professor of materia medica and therapeutics
in the Woman's Medical College of the New
York InflrmaTy.
Her encounter of the morning had touched
a vein of "reminiscences, and it needed but a
question or two to bring out recollections of
the past and facts of the present of women
physicians in the city.
"When | began to practice, not medi-
cal society anywhere admitted women to
membership. A handful of physicians only,
barely worth counting, allowed the claims
of a woman to rank as regular practl-
toner. Not one physician in 500 would
consult with a woman if called in joint attend
ance. A woman who ventured to inquire
into the mysteries of her own body, who had
peeped within the doors of the dissecting
room, was something abnormal. to be frown-
ed down righteousy and discouraged out of
existence. And yet was not the first, Dr.
Elizabeth Blackwell--she has lived abroad
for many years now-opened her New York
Office in 1851, the first regularly graduated
physician of her sex, not only in the city
but in the country, and Emily Blackwell,
the present Dean of the Womans Medi-
cal College, was but two years behind her.
ITO earn diploma in medicine in those
days required abundant capital of fortitude
and endurance 1t meant Drawing the opin-
ions of those you held dearest and running
counter to your whole little world. Yet it
was worth it. The woman physician has
her place in the universe and somebody had
to blaze a path to it DR.. Jacobs face was
serene as she spoke, looking back over the
experiences so little and yet in many ways
so great a distance behind.
There are $50 women physicians or there
aboutS, in New York to-day, DIR. jacob says,
and Brooklyn and adjoining cities have
their proportion as well. In many cases the
profession offers the best opportunities to an
educated woman of any work now open to
her Her chances for usefulness among
women, an increasing proportion of whom
are yearly coming TO prefer the services of
their own sex, are hardly to be calculated
FIOUl u IlildICldl IlOllU Oh view women DilN-
sicians find it easier to get a start than men,
because they are less numerous, and incomes
of $4,000 year, are enjoyed by several,
while $4,000 100000 and So, 900 are not
unknown Their reception by the maScu-
line members of the profession is sufpris-
ingly cordial, taking into account the brief
time in which their welcome has been won.
The County Medical Society gives them the
right hand of fellowship; other special medi-
sRala affn . h. A
New York Neurological Societies and the
American Society for Physical Research
take them in. The Infant Asylum has a
woman in charge of its lying-in ward. The
Mount Sinai Hospital has a woman among
its resident physicians. There are women
at the dispensaries. The working girls clubs
of the city make a special feature of their
organizations to secure the services of wom-
en- physicians on stated evenings every week
In Brooklyn the Lucretia Mott Hospital was
founded by woman physician and is Off
cered by women.
For the record of the women physicians,
DIR. Emily Blackwell, who keeps COSY men
age with her adopted little folk in the house
once made the salon of New York, by the
Cary sisters, Alice and Phoebe, is charm
ing example of a woman past middle life,
white-haired, strong faced, kindly and Sc
rene, useful, and knowing herself beloved by
a large circle. She is at the head of the
Woman'S Medical College and mother con-
fessor of all its students. She has a large
practice.
In Brooklyn, Drs. Eliza NJ. Moshel and
Lucy M. Hall, of the younger generation,
work together in partnership that only of
late would have been counted possible to
women. DR.. Hall, was until a few years
back resident physician of the Woman's Re-
formatory at Sherborne, Mass, almost the
first institution of its kind in America, and
DIR. Mosher was its Superintendent, being
succeeded upon her resignation by Clara
Barton, who filled the position for a brief
period The partners have been physicians
10 Vassar College, residing alternate terms
there for the past two years, nut their growing
practice will keep both at home in future.
though their leave-tabing makes a void
that the college authorities will find it hard
to fill.
DIR. Kate Parker is the resident physician
at the New York Infant Asylum, and stats
tics of the lying-in wards, under her care,
show the best record of any in the city. DR..
Annie Daniels is one of the best known ply
sicians of New York in quarters where to
be well known means labor and self sacrifice
During the summer months when the infant
mortality mounts up TO half the death rate
OF the city, the jewellers i'll the tenement dis
tricts come to rely npon her with absolute
trust, and her acquaintance with their needs
has prompted the State Charities Association
to call upon her for papers on related topics
several times DR.. Elizabeth Cushier is the
first successful ovariotomist among women
physicians She is morsel of woman who